Writers' Fest 2013

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The festival closes with a Writers' Fest in the Koninklijke Schouwburg. A programme around Dutch literature, with performances by among others Joke van Leeuwen, Nico Dijkshoorn, Ronald Giphart, Bart Moeyaert, jazz singer Denise Jannah and pianist and composer Guus Janssen. 


What is the state of affairs in Dutch letters? At the beginning of the year we take stock. Writer and critic Marja Pruis gives her vision on how Dutch literature fares. With music and readings we honour three great writers and poets who passed away in 2012. Queen of jazz and singer Denise Jannah, accompanied by guitarist Robby Alberga, sings a poem by Gerrit Komrij, Holland's foremost poet and promotor of Dutch poets and poetry. Composer and pianist Guus Janssen honours the prolific Dutch writer  Bernlef with a composition for voice and piano. And we'll listen to a recording of poet Rutger Kopland, the grand old man of Dutch poetry. Curaçaoan writer and actor Roland Colastica, who made his debut last year with the children's novel Vuurwerk in mijn hoofd (Fireworks in my Head), tells us a story about his mother tongue, Papiamento, how as a child he got to know Dutch literature, on the importance of reading and telling stories. 

Presentation of the The Hague literary prizes
Four writers are awarded with a prize today: Stephan Enter is recipient of the F. Bordewijk Prize for his novel Grip, Wouter Godijn receives the Jan Campert Prize for his book of poetry Hoe H.H. de wereld redde (How H.H. Saved the World), and Lucas Hüsgen receives the J. Greshoff Prize for contemplative prose for his book Nazi te Venlo (Nazi in Venlo). Multitalent Joke van Leeuwen is recipient of the Constantijn Huygens Prize for her entire oeuvre. The afternoon closes with her theatrical word of thanks: a unique performance by Van Leeuwen,  this writer, poet,  illustrator and comedian. In cooperation with the Nederlands Letterenfonds, Stichting Lezen and the Jan Campert Stichting. The prizes are given by the alderman for culture of The Hague, Marjolein de Jong.

Information

Date and time Sunday 20 January 2013 from 14:00 to 16:30 hrs
Location Koninklijke Schouwburg

Line-up

Pieter Steinz

(Rotterdam 1963 - Haarlem 2016) in 2010 published Grote Verwachtingen. Opgroeien in de letteren in 25 schema’s (Great Expectations. Growing up in Literature in 25 Charts). He did the same in Luisteren & cetera, (Listening etc) about 25 1970s pop albums. Somewhat earlier Macbet heeft echt geleefd (Macbeth Really Existed) appeared, on places where literary heroes used to live. In Verleden in verf (Past in Paint, 2011), Steinz sketches Dutch history in forty paintings. Steinz became an art editor with NRC Handelsblad in 1989. From 2005-2011 he headed the bookpages of that paper. Steinz studied ancient history and English. Earlier he wrote, among other books, Klein ABC van de wereldliteratuur (Concise ABC of world literature; 2008), Het web van de wereldliteratuur (The World Literature Web; 2007) and Lezen op locatie (Reading on Location; 2003), sixty maps on which he identifies where masterpieces of literature are set. In 2010 he published De Duivelskunstenaar (The wizard), a journey through Europe in search of Faust. Since 2012 Steinz has been head of the Dutch Literary Fund. He died in august 2016.
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Joke van Leeuwen

(The Hague, NL 1952) is a jack-of-all-trades. Apart from writing prose and poetry for children and adults, she illustrates and performs. In 2008 and 2009 she was city poet of Antwerp, Belgium. Her illustrated novel Alles Nieuw (Everything New) made it to the shortlist of the 2009 Ako Literature Prize. Van Leeuwen's children's books have been awarded many times with the Zilveren Griffel (Silver Pencil), Gouden Uil (Golden Owl) and the Woutertje Pieterse Prize. Especially her children's book Deesje was translated in many languages and awarded abroad. The power in her work is that she enriches her texts with beautiful illustrations. Van Leeuwen's main characters often walk through life with a gaze of wonderment while at the same time they seem locked by everyday routine. Van Leeuwen’s career began in 1978 when she won the Camaretten (cabaret) festival and published her first children's book. Since then she hes been performing in smaller and bigger productions, combining cabaret, literature and image.
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Roland Colastica

(Curaçao, 1960) is a writer, poet, playwright, actor and teacher. He made his debut in the 90s, and published, among others, books with poems and stories entitled Rueda di fe and Djis kant’i bo. After that he wrote various children’s books and gave presentations at book and theatre festivals in many different countries. He has succesfully presented his monologue Ninga bon on numerous occasions. Another one-man show by Colastica is Fo’i bo kuenta, a tragicomic mixture of stories, poems, sketches, music and songs. He has also participated in international literature festivals, like Een zee van verlangen (2001), Winternachten and Krusa Laman at The Hague, Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire. In 2006 he received the highest cultural award in Curaçao, namely the Premio Cola Debrot for his work in the field of dramaturgy and theatre. He wrote Vuurwerk in mijn hoofd (Fireworks in my Head), a youth novel in Dutch. He is currently — thanks to the support of the Dutch Foundation for Literature — a writer-in-residence in Amsterdam, where he is working on a novel for adults.
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Marja Pruis

(The Netherlands, 1959) has been writing about the expectations men and women have of each other and of life since her debut novel Bloem (Flower). Her novel Atoomgeheimen (Nuclear Secrets is about intimacy and the loss of ideals. She has been called the chronicler of contemporary womanhood; she explores her themes further in her novels De vertrouweling (The Confidant) and Zachte riten (Soft Rites). Pruis works at De Groene Amsterdammer weekly as a literary editor and columnist, writing essays on topics as diverse as humour, shyness and greed. She received the Jan Hanlo Prize for her collection of essays Kus me, straf me, and the J. Greshoff Prize for essayism with Genoeg nu over mij. For her columns, collected in Oplossingen (Solutions), she received the J. Heldring Prize. In Boos Meisje. Over vrouwen en frictie (Angry Girl. About Women and Friction), she writes about the split in which girls and women find themselves, including portraits of writers she admires such as Renate Rubinstein and Vivian Gornick. Her recently published confrontational novel Huiswerk (Homework) is about white privilege and the tension between employer and employee.
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Denise Jannah

(Suriname, 1956), a Dutch jazz singer and voice teacher of Surinemese origin, has performed around the world for Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton, among others. From 2013 to 2016 she toured the Netherlands with Ella!, a production that will be staged again in 2017, the centenary of Ella Fitzgerald's birth. Jannah won two Edisons and appeared seven times at the North Sea Jazz Festival. She was the first Dutch performer to land a record contract with the prestigious jazz label Blue Note. Jannah has performed with musicians such as Chick Corea, Frank Boeijen, the Rosenberg Trio and Willem Breuker. For this festival in 2002, she set poems to music from the Netherlands, Suriname, the Antilles, South Africa and Indonesia. She took the same program to literary festivals in Utrecht, Suriname, the Antilles, South Africa and Indonesia. In 2015 she toured Russia and appeared in Dutch theatres in a musical production about the battle for emancipation of two women in Suriname.



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Ronald Giphart

(Dordrecht, NL 1965) is a novelist and columnist. His debut Ik ook van jou (Me You Too, 1992), was awarded the Gouden Ezelsoor and adapted for the screen. His second novel Giph (1993) was a big success too. In 2004 he was recipient of the Utrecht C.C.S. Crone Award for his entire oeuvre. Giphart studied Dutch and worked as a hospital nightporter before starting to write. His novels Phileine zegt sorry (Phileine Says Sorry, 1996) and Ik omhels je met duizend armen (I Embrace you with a Thousand Arms, 2000) were adapted for the screen as well. In 2003 he wrote the Dutch book week gift, the novella Gala. In November 2012 De wake (Vigil) appeared, three interwoven tales. Giphart toured the theatres with Dutch writers Bart Chabot and Martin Bril (2005-2006) and Nico Dijkshoorn (2012). He wrote for the Dutch Railways magazine Rails for years, a magazine whose editor-in-chief he was briefly. He writes columns for the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant and the children's science magazine KijK.
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Bart Moeyaert

(Belgium, 1964) writes poetry, scripts, short stories, and audiobooks in addition to YA and children's novels. He was studying Dutch, German, and history in Brussels when he debuted with Duet met valse noten (Duet with False Notes). It won the prize of the Flemish YA and children's jury. For Flair magazine he wrote about his great role model, Astrid Lindgren. He later worked for Flemish daily newspaper De Standaard and wrote TV sripts and plays. In 2000 he toured a theatrical show of stories about his childhood from his book Broere (Brothers), which had won him the Woutertje Pieterse Prize, among others. Together with the Dutch Wind Ensemble he created De Schepping (Creation), a personal interpretation of Haydn's Die Schöpfung. In 2003 he debuted as a poet and three years later became poet laureate of Antwerp. His adaptation of L'Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale) was published in 2013, the text by Ramuz upon which Stravinsky based his composition. Moeyaert is the artistic director of guest countries Flanders and the Netherlands for the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair.
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Guus Janssen

(Heiloo, NL 1951) is a composer, pianist an harpsichordist. He studied at the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory. Janssen attempts to find the relationship between classical music and jazz and has a predilection for improvisation. His compositions were performed by the ASKO Ensemble, the Mondriaankwartet, the Nieuw Ensemble, the Radio Kamerorkest, the Concertgebouw Orkest and the Ebony Band. As a pianist and harpsidorchist he performed in numerous formations, performing with John Zorn and Gidon Kremer, among others. Since the early 1980s he has conducted his own ensembles, ranging from (piano)trio to orchestra. In the 1980s he was recipient of the Boy Edgar Prize for his jazz and improvised music and the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize for his compositions. In 2008 his Verstelwerk, performed the Riverside Orchestra, received tumultuous applause in Carnegie Hall, New York. In that same year Janssen was composer in residence with the Brabants Orkest and released a solo piano cd: Out of frame. With Friso Haverkamp he wrote four operas.
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Lucas Hüsgen

(Weert, NL 1960), penname of Lucas de Jong, made his debut in 1992 with Zeehond in wormgat (Seal in Worm Hole). Followed a year later by the collections of poetry Nevels orgel (Nebula's Organ; nomination C. Buddingh' Prize). The anthology Deze rouwmoedige schoonheid (This Mourncourageous Beauty, 2005) was nominated for the Ida Gerhardt Poetry Award.

 According to the jury the laboured language demands a lot from the reader, but his poems are 'so seductive and witty that we become detached from every callibrated mode of reasoning or poetic tradition.' His novel Plooierijen van geschik (2007) made it to the 2008 longlist of the Libris Literature Prize and the Gouden Uil. Hüsgen translates Korean poetry and his recent novel De Windbel (The Wind Bell) reads like a road movie through Korea and the virtual world. He also works for the literary magazines Yang and Parmentier and regularly writes for musical projects. For Nazi te Venlo (Nazi In Venlo, 2011), a quest for the alleged Nazi past of his great-grandfather, he was recipient of the J. Greshoff Prize.
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Stephan Enter

(Rozendaal, NL 1973), penname of S.D.V.B. van Schaffelaer, made his debut in 1999 with the collection of short stories Winterhanden (Winter Hands). It was followed by Lichtjaren (Light Years, 2005) and Spel (Game, 2007). His breakthrough came in 2011 with Grip, winning him the F. Bordewijk Prize and the Gouden Boekenuil (Golden Book Owl). The Dutch daily paper Trouw wrote: 'Grip is rich in ideas, classical and profound, scarce qualities in Dutch prose of today.' The Reformatorisch Dagblad, a Christian newspaper, calls Enter 'an infallible stylist [...] who with well-chosen sentences lifts worlds, turns them round in front of your bewildered eyes, to make them disappear with playful ease. Not by all kinds of linguistic frills but simply by writing very well and very precisely, with balanced metaphor.' Late 2011 The Volkskrant elected Grip as one of the Three Best Books of 2011. Grip has been translated into German, Italian and Norwegian, among other languages. His fourth novel Compassie (Compassion) was published in 2015.
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Wouter Godijn

(Amsterdam, NL 1955) is recipient of the Jan Campert Award 2012 for his book of poetry Hoe H.H. de wereld redde (How H.H. Saved the World). Godijn writes about being ill, dying, and about the power of poetry. Often heavy subjects, but Godijn can be irrepressibly funny. Sometimes it is pure slapstick, sometimes political parable. Wouter Godijn made his debut in 1997 with a novel Witte tongen (White Tongues), but discovered that his potential was first and foremost in poetry. In 2000 he published his first book of poetry, Alle kinderen zijn van glas (All Children Are Made of Glass). In his entire oeuvre what is striking is particularly the contrast between the banal and the exalted. Godijn received nationwide renown when popular Dutch poets Gerrit Komrij and Neeltje Maria Min chose his second anthology, Langzame Nederlaag (Slow Defeat), as their first ever choice of the Dutch Poetry Club. His third anthology De karpers en de krab (The Carps and the Crab)was nominated for the prestigious Dutch poetry award VSB Poëzieprijs. Meanwhile Godijn has published three novels and seven books of poetry.
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Nico Dijkshoorn

(Amsterdam, NL 1960) studied Dutch and geography and worked as a librarian until his breakthrough in 1999 as an Internet columnist with his pieces on the tv programme Big Brother. His great talent struck immediately: the ironical, contrary and often moving descriptions of human behaviour. Nationwide renown came with a sports column in de Volkskrant. After that he collaborated in comedy tv programmes Café de Wereld, Draadstaal and Dit was het Nieuws. He also wrote for the football magazine Hard Gras and Muziekkrant OOR. Since 2008 he has been a regular poet on DWDD, the popular prime time tv talkshow. In 2007 his Grote GeenStijl Winterboek (Great NoStyle Winterbook) appeared and under the penname P. Kouwes he published the anthology of poems Daar schrik je toch van (It makes you start). Followed in 2009 by De tranen van Kuif den Dolder (The Tears of Kuif den Dolder), a novel about a fictitious football hero. In 2012 Dijkshoorn and Ronald Giphart toured the theatres with Matennaaiers (Screw Your Buddies). In 2012 he wrote the Dutch book week essay Verder alles goed (Everything All Right) while in that same year Appeleren (Appeal with the Ref), a collection of football columns, and Dijkshoorn kijkt kunst, a book on looking at art, also appeared.
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Ellen Deckwitz

(The Netherlands, 1982) is a poet, columnist, critic and presenter at literary events, including Writers Unlimited. For De steen vreest mij (2011), she was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize for the best poetry debut. Her collection Hogere natuurkunde (2019) is part travelogue, part myth and part testimony, and the outcome of conversations Deckwitz engaged in with individuals whose roots also trace back to the former Dutch East Indies. In 2022, Eerste hulp bij poëzie was published, an omnibus containing her collections Olijven moet je leren lezen (2020) and Dit gaat niet over grasmaaien (2021). Deckwitz writes columns for national daily newspaper NRC. In her NPO Luister podcast Poëzie vandaag, she presents a Dutch or translated poem every workday morning. She is one of three critics of podcast Boeken FM. Since Autumn 2025, she has been one of the presenters of Nooit meer Slapen, the VPRO's night-time cultural radio programme.

Instagram: @la_deck
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